If you own a pet you know they are a huge expense. There really is no way around it. It costs money to feed and care for them. The bills really do add up. This article shows the cost of having a dog. The high annual cost is $2500 for a dog, but the write says he gets away with $800/year, but the bare minimum is $300/year.
Here’s the deal, if you don’t take care of your pet’s health as they grow old, like your own health it will cost more in the long run. Well if you try to keep them alive. If you allow your pet to become obese and have medical problems, then put them down instead, it’s probably cheaper; although one would argue not humane.
So what are some frugal pet tips? Order the flea/tick medication and heartguard online. I usually order a 1 year supply at a time or more. Instead of going to the vet, I put in my vet’s name and have them confirm my prescription for heartguard. It’s honestly around 30% cheaper to buy their medications online.
Second, feed your dog better quality kibble and only kibble. Seriously it’s worth not buying Purina and Hungry Dog, because those foods have been shown to lead to kidney stones. That’s expensive! It’ll eat up your “savings” of cheap food. But why only kibble? Well obese pets have more medical problems like heart disease, arthritis, etc. Long term you’ll be saving money if you aren’t shoveling your leftovers onto Fido’s plate. Also limit treats and you’ll a bundle.
Third, find someone to trade dog sitting favors with. I’ve found that boarding our dogs when we want to go away for the weekend, prohibitively expensive. Ideally I’d love to find someone to dog sit, but it’s impossible. My DH is very picky about our dogs and many owners aren’t so religious about walking them 3x/day, let alone 1x/day. But I know other owners who do trade dog sitting favors.
Finally, adopt an adult dog. I seriously saved a bundle by going through a rescue group/shelter instead of buying a puppy. I did not pay $800 for a puppy, then go to training classes, or pay for the neutering of my dogs. I had housebroken, neutered, and somewhat trained dogs. In my experience the first year of a dogs life is the most expensive.
These are a couple of my frugal pet tips. Do you have any?
4 responses so far ↓
1 Jono // Oct 29, 2009 at 9:14 am
Giving your dog only Kibble (dry food) isn’t the best thing, they need variety, but Kibble is great in terms of nutrition. (Side note, why is it called kibble??)
My parents have 2 Hunterways that the adopted last year (3 yrs old). Poor things are so shy and scared at the slightest loud noise, but so intelligent. My Dad is also a little religous about exersizing them too, they get 5-8 km runs along the beach (5 for the female, she can’t go as far).
Adpoting a dog is an amazing choice. They have so much more character.
2 Inkstain // Oct 29, 2009 at 10:34 am
For cats, make sure they get a mix of wet and dry food. My wife’s family lost a cat to a urinary tract infection when she was a teenager because they only bought dry cat food.
3 R.May // Oct 29, 2009 at 3:05 pm
completely off topic but where’d your musings go? i get a pretty teal page telling me to contact the webmaster.
4 LAL // Oct 29, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Jono, actually my dogs are highly allergic, so I only feed them dry kibble. I have no idea about the kibble. Their kibble is ridiculously expensive like $4/lb. Turns out they both have food allergies.
Inkstain, it can’t be done, unless I want to run around the house cleaning up piles of messes.
R.May I had to close it since I was done.
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